1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a method for setting print conditions in an inkjet printer or another printing device for intermittently discharging ink onto a medium and depositing the ink at a target position on the medium.
2. Related Art
One known example of a printing device is an inkjet printer, which performs printing by intermittently discharging ink onto paper, cloth, film or other various media. An inkjet printer forms an image by depositing tiny dots composed of ink droplets on a medium. An inkjet printer comprises an ink discharge head in which nozzles from which ink is discharged are fixed in place in a line or staggered formation across the width of the medium, and forms an image by discharging ink while moving the medium in a conveying direction orthogonal to the line direction in which the nozzles are aligned. The ink is loaded into an ink tank, led from the tank to a space referred to as a reservoir in the head by a pump, and then guided from the reservoir to a pressure chamber in communication with the nozzles. The pressure chamber is then expanded and contracted or otherwise manipulated, causing the ink to be discharged from the nozzles. The ink droplets discharged from the nozzles are thereby deposited onto a target position on the surface of the medium.
In an inkjet printer capable of printing in multiple colors using a plurality of ink colors, droplets of the plurality of inks are mixed by subtractive color mixing on a plane to express colors other than the ink colors, known as composite colors or secondary colors. In the printing areas of composite colors, bordering ink droplets of inks of two different colors flow together on the medium and blur along the fibers or the like of the medium, the solvent (moisture) of water-based ink seeps into the medium and deforms the medium, the ink droplets deposited at one time on the medium agglutinate, and a phenomenon known as “concentration irregularity” has been known to occur, wherein the concentration of a composite color becomes non-uniform.
In Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2009-166297, a printing device is disclosed in which non-water-based ink is first discharged and water-based ink is then discharged in order to prevent concentration irregularity resulting from deformation of the medium.